1. Field of the Invention
The present application generally relates to an anti-virus system and method, and more particularly, to anti-virus system and method guaranteeing a maximum delay for streaming data.
2. Description of the Related Art
The Internet is an ideal mass medium for the spread of computer viruses because virtually every computer is connected to another computer or network either directly or indirectly. The Internet, with all its benefits and fascinations, is nonetheless an effective and efficient medium for an intentional spread of malicious code attack. It has been estimated that some fast-paced viruses can spread throughout the entire Internet within a matter of a few hours, if not effectively stopped. With the increase of data traffic in network environments, it is more likely that computer viruses will spread faster throughout the networks.
Generally, anti-virus software programs are deployed in the device nodes and servers within a network. The anti-virus software programs typically reside under the operating systems (e.g., Windows™) and scan the data stored within the network for computer viruses at the database level. However, scanning the data at the database level causes significant delays in detecting computer viruses. For streaming data, the general concern is to balance higher data throughput efficiency with the data security. Typically, a balance between the higher data throughput efficiency and data security is achieved by defining streaming data as not being able to carry computer viruses thus, the streaming data is not scanned for computer viruses. However, this assumption is no longer true because shockwave files (streaming data type) are known to carry computer viruses. Thus, now it is relatively easy to present computer viruses as streaming data type.
Typically, the data files are not scanned for computer viruses until the entire data file is downloaded by a computer system (e.g., network interface element). The problem with scanning of streaming data type for computer viruses is that typically, the streaming data files include a large amount of data and the data is presented to the user simultaneously with the downloading. The downloading of streaming data files requires a significant amount of time. Further, the scanning of the streaming data files, after the downloading, can require twice as much time before the data can be presented to the user. Current virus detection techniques do not guarantee a response time for virus detection of large data files such as streaming data. There is thus a need in the art for a method and system that guarantees a maximum delay for virus detection in large data streams.